I have checked proweb, soundonsound, The project studio handbook site, the usual forums etc.
Now I'm particularly interested in that heavily processed pop, RnB sort of vocal. It might not be a choice for purists, who like it all to be done in one great take, with no doubletracking, autotune etc. But I like my vocals like my synths: polished and everything chiselled to perfection. I know this might not be everyones cuppa but that's taking the vocal to the extreme. If you want less polished vocals, just skip a few points
Let me point out that I'm far from an expert and I'm just as much looking for tips and tricks as well as providing them. As a matter of fact feel free to correct me if I'm completely wrong. Do hold back a bit though
The way to pro vocals (very briefly):
Recording:
1. Get a good singer. This is the hard part.
2. A good condensor mic and good pre-amp, each can be bought in a reasonable quality for about £150.
3. If recording home, which a lot of us do you need some sort of vocal booth to kill the reflections of the room. Hanging duvets/sleeping bags from the ceiling in a circle around the vocalist will do a decent job.
4. Compress a little while recording but only a little, maybe a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. Remember you can't uncompress once it's recorded.
5. Record at least 3 or 4 times (possibly 20 or 30) so you have a few choices.
Now, you can find much more detailed articles on the internet regarding recording so as mentioned, it was very brief.
Processing:
Now many will probably just compress the recorded vocal and slap a reverb on it and call it a day. But that's not really a pro vocal.
This is where my search begins to lack.
Ok, these are some possible (necessary?) steps:
1. De-ess the vocal to get rid of the nasty t's and s's. Even better do it manually changing the actual waveform by hand. Takes much longer time but gives a better result.
2. Noise-gate. Same as above, use a noise gate or better, do it manually. Most of the time it shouldn't be necessary to do it manually as the noisefloor *should* be a lot lower than the vocal.
3. Reverb. Contrary to common belief reverb is not always the best choice. Why? It can bring the vocal further back but more importantly, the long tails can make the mix more muddy. A delay with a high pass filter is often a better choice as it's not as dense as a reverb.
4. Pitch correction, even Mariah Carrey uses it. Probably been on 95% of all Top 40 singles the last 5 years. You all know what it does. Use if you like it, if not don't. Wanna do Top 40, use it. Simple as that.
5. Double/triple etc. tracking. A great way to make a phatter vocal.
One way is to e.g do three tracks, pan one dead centre. One left and one right. The panned tracks should be played at around 30-50% volume. Now delay the left track by 20 ms. and on the right make it come 20 ms. before the centre vocal. That will give a much more "chorused" vocal.
Another trick is to just have one vocal track and duplicate it using autotune on only one of the track and therefore getting a pitch variation. That will also phatten up your vocal.
6. Compression: To make your vocal upfront try and compress the panned tracks very, I mean VERY hard, say 8:1 ratio, threshold 30-40 dB and compress the centre vocal normally. Keeping the panned track low in the mix, at least 6 dB lower than the lead will insure you get a compressed-in-your-face sound, while still maintaining dynamic. Woohoo
7. Chopping /further editing. I know that a lot of pro's will go as far as cutting out cyllabels to get a perfect vocal. So the word "extraordinairy" if sung, could be chopped up quite a bit
Personally I'm not really bothered to go to this extreme.
Of course this is all subjective, so feel free to add/subtract.
I'd be very interested in knowing other tips etc.
Both sorta found their voice and focus on breathing. Now they can go on for 2 or 3 hours without breaking their voice down. And that's nice if you're doing a 2 hour gig or 20 vocal takes.